War in the Atlantic: A Historical Case of Homeland Security - World War II German U-boat Submarine Warfare, British Shipping Losses, Naval Countermeasures and the Royal Air Force, Radar and Air Cover

This important study has been professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction. At the outbreak of World War II, Great Britain was unprepared to counter German submarine warfare in the Atlantic. In World War I, Germany had conducted a devastating U-boat campaign against merchant shipping, threatening the Atlantic supply chain that Britain depended on for goods, food, and materiel. The Royal Navy defended the commercial fleet by organizing convoy escorts. In the interwar period, the navy was burdened by a poor economy, interservice rivalry, and a treaty limiting its fleet. Historian Correlli Barnett points out that the admiralty had warned that the diminished navy was unprepared to face the rising aggression of Japan and Germany in his book Engage the Enemy More Closely, published in 1991 by Norton. When war was declared, the navy immediately resumed the convoys and escorts, but it was not sufficient to protect all routes. In the end, technological advances, above all the introduction of long-range aircraft in an antisubmarine role, helped offset British unreadiness and concomitant losses in the Atlantic, but ingenuity would not have been enough. Without strategic alliances, Britain could not have gained the upper hand.

Contents: British Shipping Losses: Historical Context * Unrestricted Submarine Warfare * Economic Warfare * Desperation * Solutions * Advent Of Aircraft * Rise Of A Rival Strategy * Creation Of The Royal Air Force * Britain's Struggle To Rearm * Identifying Threats And The Enemy * Beginnings Of The Battle Of The Atlantic * Britain's Grand Strategy * Allocating Resources For Britain's War Effort * Britain's Naval Lines Of Communication * German Campaign In Scandinavia * Shifts In Britain's Grand Strategy * Battle Of Britain * British Naval Countermeasures * Britain's Concern With The Far East * War Up To December 1941 * The Development Of Radar * Leigh Light * Improved Ordnance * Britain's Relationship Between The Military And The Scientist * Winning The Battle Of The Atlantic * Making Up Losses * War For Air Cover * Mounting Losses In The Atlantic * Closing The Air Gap * The Critical Point * Success * 2019 U.S. Intelligence Community Worldwide Threat Assessment

After World War I, the British government struggled to achieve a collegiality and cooperation among its protective services that would allow for the development of a comprehensive strategy employing every branch (army, navy, and air force) to best advantage. But the independent services fought one another for funding and prestige. The Royal Navy's blockade had helped end the war, and yet the cost of building and maintaining a fleet of modern warships had drained the British economy, while its contribution was perceived as negligible. Military aircraft had proved that Britain was not as safe from its enemies as it once was, and Great Britain's dependency on its once supreme navy was in doubt.

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